According to a report from The Athletic, former Bayern Munich star Xabi Alonso is having a tumultuous time attempting to manage the collection of attitudes and personalities n the Real Madrid locker room.
In fact, it seems like there already could be a massive gap between the head coach and his squad, particularly star attacker Vinícius Júnior. A timeline of how the relationship has fractured is wild ride that goes back to the Club World Cup.
Vinícius Júnior initially became unhappy with Alonso because
the new coach played the Brazilian on the right side of the attack, not his preferred left side. Moreover, Alonso originally was not even going to play Vinícius Júnior at all, but an injury to Trent Alexander-Arnold necessitated some lineup movement:
Vinicius Jr did not appreciate that and has not felt comfortable with Alonso, who was appointed in May, since then. As reported by The Athletic, the Brazilian’s camp predicted, “It’s not going to be an easy season,” in early August.
Against Espanyol last month, Alonso subbed out Vinícius Júnior during a cooling break in the 77th minute, while Real Madrid was winning 2-0. Despite Alonso’s attempt to explain the move to the player and calm him down, the Brazilian was “visibly frustrated.”
During El Classico, Vinícius Júnior went into full diva mode when Alonso was subbing the Brazilian star off:
When he saw his No 7 come up on the fourth official’s board, Vinicius Jr asked five times, “Me?!”, even calling out, “Coach, coach!” to Alonso as he made his way to the bench. The tension did not finish there. While Alonso did not approach him, cameras from broadcaster DAZN captured him looking annoyed and saying, “Come on Vini, damn it…”
After shaking hands with his team-mate and friend Rodrygo, Vinicius Jr’s protests increased.
“Always me,” he said, lifting his arms and directing himself to Sebas Parrilla, Alonso’s assistant coach. “I’m leaving the team, it’s better if I leave, I’m leaving,” he continued, going straight to the dressing room.
A few minutes later, there was another murmur at the Bernabeu as cameras captured Vinicius Jr back on the bench.
Later in the match, a brawl nearly occurred and Vinícius Júnior was a central figure in the issue:
Vinicius Jr was one of the protagonists of the post-match scuffle, which involved players and staff from both teams and led to police attempting to break it up.
After Pedri was shown a late second yellow card for lunging in on Aurelien Tchouameni, the cameras cut to Madrid players squaring up to their Barca counterparts in the dugout, with Vinicius Jr involved. Reserve goalkeeper Andrii Lunin was shown a red card while defending Vinicius Jr, who he had already given a hug to after he returned to the bench.
Club sources — like all those in this article, speaking anonymously as they are not authorised to do so — told The Athletic they did not understand Lunin’s sending-off and would appeal it. Another source present for the scuffle said the Ukraine international saw “the entire Barcelona bench going towards Vini” and stood in front of him to protect him.
Finally, Goal tacked on some information as well and it seems as if Vinícius Júnior might not be the only player at odds with Alonso. For his part, Alonso could be attempting to follow in the steps of one of his mentors — Pep Guardiola:
Guardiola’s coaching mentor was Johan Cruyff, and in his very first season as a coach with Barcelona’s B team he approached the legendary Dutchman about a dilemma: His best two players were undermining him. Cruyff’s message was clear: “Get rid of them.” Guardiola did as Cruyff advised and his team overcame a slippery start to storm to the title.
The rift with Vinicius is believed to just be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Alonso’s relationship with the players. Another report in The Athletic recounted how Alonso told his squad soon after taking charge that they would have to run more and work harder. Alonso’s staff had spoken of “many bad habits” setting in under Ancelotti and the new coach established a new set of rules for the squad, emphasising the importance of punctuality and maintaining intensity in training.
Alonso’s hands-on approach was in total contrast to that of Ancelotti, who was barely involved in training sessions, delegating them to other members of staff. And it rubbed players, many of whom had won multiple La Liga titles and Champions League crowns, up the wrong way.
The most damning quote in the report came from a source close to a senior player, which read: “He thinks he’s Pep Guardiola, but for now he’s just Xabi.”
To complicate matters further for Alonso, Real Madrid lost to Manchester 2-1 in the Champions League on Wednesday, effectively taking Alonso’s seat from pretty warm to scorching hot. Still, Sky Germany’s Patrick Berger is reporting that Alonso’s job is safe…for now:
It is hard to believe, but Alonso could actually be in his final days as Real Madrid’s head coach already. No doubt, though, if Real Madrid does sack Alonso, it would only be a matter of time before Liverpool starts to have second thoughts about its relationship with Arne Slot — which could allow Alonso to reunite with one of his favorite players, Florian Wirtz, and coach another one of the three teams (Bayern Munich being the third) he targeted once he decided to leave Bayer Leverkusen.
